Verizon Business today added a log management feature to its managed security services portfolio that the company says will help businesses efficiently track information needed to meet data security regulations.

The new service, known as the Application Log Monitoring and Management Service, analyzes user and system activity logs to detect potential security threats, such as multiple failed attempts to log into a corporate network. The service includes automated collection, correlation and analysis of both current and historical log data.

In addition, the new service archives data and provides companies with the ability to retrieve it in case of an audit. The big advantage of this storage and retrieval capability, says Verizon, is to help companies keep up with ever-evolving security regulations, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for companies that store, process or transmit credit card data; Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations to protect sensitive health information; and FISMA regulations meant to ensure network security for the federal government.

"This service really cuts down the audit preparation process," says Cindy Bellefeuille, security product management for Verizon Business. "The searchable quality of this data is what differentiates it from historical methods of retrieving data."

Counse Broders, a senior research director at Current Analysis, says this new service will appeal to companies that need to regularly demonstrate to auditors that they're meeting data compliance standards. And because log analysis is "not the most exciting work to do," Broders thinks that companies will be enticed by the idea of outsourcing it to a managed services provider.

"Verizon has done a pretty good job putting this package together," he says, but adds that "it doesn't address what we'd call software-as-a-service applications, but that could require a different security approach just because of the nature of that business. There are also going to be a lot of customer proprietary applications that this service may not fit off the shelf, and that may require some professional consultation to handle, if they can on a case-by-case basis."

Verizon Business says the new log management service will be available in the United States starting next month. The company is offering two service types: one that only monitors for security threats and the other a fully managed package. Recurring fees for the monitor-only service start at $2,500 per year per log management appliance, while recurring fees for the fully managed service start at $4,000 per year per log management appliance.